I was just trying to find the apartment building in Santa Monica where I lived as a child. It’s on Barrington Avenue, within walking distance of the Mar Vista Elementary School.
I found it on the aerial view, but when I tried to look at it from street view I couldn’t. It looks like the Googlemobile didn’t want to go down Barrington between the Whole Foods (which, of course, wasn’t there in 1960) and the school.
I wonder why? It looks like it’s still a good neighborhood.
This was summer, bermuda shorts and all. But the balloons could be filled with, uh, biological items— algal filled water or neutral gelatin (creating movie... gooo or gaack).
LOL.
Great post. Humor. Drones at my bud’s place get shot down— with glee.
Ran across a broken down mapping vehicle in the outback a few weeks ago. Guy wouldn’t say if it was google or not. It was an exterra and crammed to the walls with computers and video gear. Offered him assistance but he said the “support” vehicle was on the way.
Are folks even allowed to get that close to Stonehenge now? I thought it was fenced off.
Google is doing trail mapping now, with people wearing, I guess, cameras something like that in the photo, walking down trails in National Parks.
Kinda cool, actually. I looked up an old stomping ground in Arches NP.
Mapping is still in it's infancy and we have not seen anything yet. Mapping technology is rapidly accelerating and soon we will be able to access incredible detail about the world around us in real time. Imagine traveling to a restaurant and being guided into an open parking space.
Or imagine this, a diner leaving the restaurant will be able to make his space available for a fee. Approaching diners will bid up the price and as the parking space is exchanged, the negotiated fee will automatically transact electronically between buyer and seller. We might only be talking a dollar or two but who would pay a couple dollars to get a prime parking space on a busy Friday or Saturday night?
Or let's say you work in the city and take a city bus to the train station. Future apps will be able to tell you exactly where the bus is so that you can leave your office when the bus is just a few blocks away. No more waiting out in the rain or cold waiting for a bus to show up.
Potential is almost limitless with mapping.
And yes, for better or worse, privacy is pretty much a thing of the past. You step out into a public street and you are going to be on camera in one form or another.